I chose to write my project about Judith Djamal because she is exactly what the project demands. She is an immigrant who contributes a great amount of herself to society. Judith is a movie editor, a mother of six children, and in all a great person. She got involved with the topic of women who are agunot by editing a movie on the subject.
Judith is a human being just like us all, she sees hears and is aware to the hardships of people around her like all people but she doesn’t turn her back and try to forget about it, she tries to do something about it. She does what we should all do: she keeps her eyes open and is ready to help if someone is in need. Today she volunteers in an organization called “Mavoi Satom” an organization she set up because she felt the need to do something to help the problematic situation many woman in Israel encounter. These women would like a divorce but their husbands won't give them a “Get”- a document that allows them to marry or be with another man with out having a problem in Jewish law caused by a married woman having a forbidden relationship. This situation is called “Mesorvot Get” and the women are called “Agunot”. In many cases these women are blackmailed for money or the custody of their children in order to receive a get. In my opinion our responsibility as Israelis is to keep our eyes open and our heart ready to help anyone in need because at the end of the day we are all brothers and to create a better society we have to all look out for each other.
Profile
Judith Djamal was born in 1963 in Gibraltar a very small peninsular occupying two
and a half square miles. Gibraltar is approximately the size of a large neighborhood. In the time while Judith was growing up the border to Spain was closed which led to a situation where children in Gibraltar had very little to do and except for the summer during which they could be at the beach they got quite bored. This lifestyle is the reason Judith decided at age eight that she wanted to leave Gibraltar. In Gibraltar there was only one junior high school and it was led by nuns. Attending this school was quite memorable and one of the many stories Judith has from there is a story of her and a friend hiding in a closet from one of the nun teachers. When discovered, Judith just ran and jumped out the window rather then face the teacher. Judith found a way to both get out of Gibraltar and away from the convent and she moved to a Jewish boarding school in England. Judith enjoyed boarding school greatly and has many stories from there as well. The girls always raided each others rooms, put sugar in each others bed, took each others knickers (underpants) and basically had a very good time. Judith was always aware of others suffering even while in boarding school and if she thought something was wrong she did something about it. An example of this is the fact that she let out all the frogs from the science lab because she thought that science wasn’t a good enough excuse for causing such suffering.
Judith got married with Jack Djamal in 1989 in Gibraltar and then moved to Thailand -Jacks place of birth. Judith met Jack though Leila one of her best friends who is Jacks’ sister. She says that she was the last of Leilas friends that he met and he had no other choice but to marry her. Judith and Jack met in England while Judith was working in the BBC and Jack was visiting his sister. They came to Israel in 1992 and eventually made aliya in 1995. Judith’s reason for making aliya is that in Israel they had kosher food and she could eat 9% cottage cheese and milky. Besides that reason Judith felt that whatever she did anywhere except for Israel wouldn’t make a difference and even if it did it wouldn’t make a difference to what she felt matters because it wouldn’t affect Jewish society. Judith had wanted to make aliya since she was a child and this intention only increased with time. She spent a summer in Israel when she was sixteen and always felt that it is her country.
Judith got involved with the topic of women who are refused a get-Jewish divorce whilst editing a movie on the subject.
According to Jewish Law, a man has to give his wife a “get”, a religious divorce, of his own free will. She cannot start a new life or enter a new relationship until she has received the get. If she does have a relationship any children born of that union will be considered “mamzerim”, according to halacha- Jewish law, and cannot marry another Jew for 10 generations.
On the other hand, a non divorced man can be in another relationship and there are no halachic repercussions in Jewish Law. Unfortunately, this leads to an imbalance of power which certain men will exploit to their advantage. Many of the women who are refused a “get” have been abused and the get is seen as the last form of control by the recalcitrant husband. These men will often misuse the Jewish law and want to be paid handsomely to give the get freely. Throughout the ages, the leading Jewish authorities- Gedolei Hador, like the Rambam and the Rama have devised solutions to free women from the shackles of unwanted and abusive marriages. These women are known as Agunot. Freeing an aguna, a woman who cannot receive a get, was considered as important as freeing hostages or POWs.
Today many religious judges -dayanim are worried about the issue of mamzerut and place a lot of importance on the get being given willingly. So much so, that in their eyes, a man who refuses to give his wife a get but will give it if he is paid $10,000 is giving it out of his own free will. Rabbi Riskin spoke out against this phenomenon at a demonstration in Jerusalem. He emphatically stated that agunut is a problem that does not need to exist. There are solutions in Jewish Law that are just not being used.
Hearing first hand of the shocking situation in which these women find themselves and understanding how wrong it is led Judith to become involved. Judith’s first began raising money for good lawyers to represent the women in court. Although Judith isn’t a social worker these women used to call her at home because they needed someone to turn to. This is because a large number of these women are or were abused as well. Over time, Judith understood that these women needed a large range of professional help and she helped to found an organization called Mavoi Satum.
Mavoi Satum does many things to promote change. They work with many rabbis all over Israel, with the Knesset, with legal strategists and public leaders. Apart from working towards fixing the core of the problem they also help individuals by providing them with professional lawyers to present their case in court. Mavoi Satum also has social workers who are there to hear and help the women.
Judith believes that people need to be honest righteous and think about others for those are the things needed for a moral society. She hopes that in the future she will still be involved and would also like to be involved in doing something about child abuse.
Background research
Gibraltar is an overseas British colony south of Spain occupying 6.5 square kilometers. Gibraltar is strategically located in south Western Europe, bordering the strait of Gibraltar which links the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean on the southern coast of Spain.
Originally Gibraltar was part of Spain but it was conquered by Great Britain in 1713. in 1830 it was formally declared a colony.
In a referendum held in 1967 Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to remain a British dependency. The following granting of autonomy in 1969 by the United Kingdom led to Spain closing the border and cutting of all communication links. A series of negotiations were held as a result to this between the UK and Spain between the years 1997 and 2002 about establishing joint rule over Gibraltar.
After the majority of the Gibraltarian citizens voted against joint rule in the referendum held on the subject, the negotiations continued and eventually lead to an agreement between Spain and Great Britain. This agreement was that Spain would remove restrictions on air movements, speed up customs procedures, implement international telephone dialing, allow mobile roaming agreements and open the border to Spain. All this in exchange for Britain agreeing to increase the pensions of Spaniards who were employed in Gibraltar before the border was closed, allow Spain to open a cultural institute and to stay responsible for defense, foreign relations, internal security and financial stability.
The official language in Gibraltar is English. Apart from that Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are spoken as well.
Gibraltar has a population of approximately 28,800 citizens. Out of this population 88.3% are Christian, 4% are Muslim and 2% are Jews.
Despite being a small percentage of the total population of Gibraltar, the Jewish community is of significant importance as several Jews have served and still serve in leading roles in the government. A particular case to this is Sir Joshua Hassan who served as chief minister of Gibraltar for two different periods throughout his life. to learn more about Gibraltar you can go to The World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gi.html
Literary connection
אהבת שיראל בנשמה אלפיים שנה אני נודד מחפש את הארץ אותה אני אוהב
כל יום מחדש הלב נשבר
כל יום מחדש אולי מחר
מתי הגאולה?
אני מאמין באמונה שלמה
בביאת המשיח
בארץ ישראל של אהבה
בכל יום שיגיע
הנה הנה זה בא
אהבת ישראל בנשמה
כל בוקר ציון אליך אני מתפלל
לא ינום לא יישן שומר ישראל
כל יום מחדש אני אוהב
כל יום מחדש עם כל הלב
שלום על ישראל
אני מאמין באמונה שלמה
בביאת המשיח
בארץ ישראל של אהבה
בכל יום שיגיע
הנה הנה זה בא
אהבת ישראל בנשמה
For the love of Israel For two thousand years I have wandered
Searching for the land I love
Every day anew my heart breakes
Every day anew maybe tomorrow
When will the redemption come?
I have full faith
In the coming of the Messiah
In the land of Israel full of love,
Each day I believe he will come.
Here it comes:
The love of Israel is in our soul
Every morning I pray to Zion,
The guardian of Israel will not slumber nor sleep.
Every day my love is renewed
Every day anew with my whole heart
Peace in Israel
I have full faith
In the coming of the Messiah
In the land of Israel full of love,
Each day I believe he will come.
Here it comes:
The love of Israel is in your soul
The love of Israel is in your soul
The song "Ahavat Israel Baneshama" is written by David Avramzon. This song speaks of the yearning of the Jewish people for their home- the land of Israel. In this song David Avramzon managed to express the feeling of the heartbreaking hope for the redemption and the belief in the redemption and thecoming of the messiah despite all the hardships
I feel that the author's main point is that despite the hardships the Jewish people will never stop hoping for the redemption, and the messiah. They will never stop loving each and every member of the nation on each and every day.
I chose this piece of literature to include in my project because I felt that it really manages to express what it feels like to be a Jew. This song shows the love and brotherhood there is between Jews. It manages to express the feeling of longing and the hardships on the way to the redemption.
The best element in this piece of literature in my opinion is that despite all the hardships it closes optimistically: "Ahavat Israel Baneshama" which means that the love of Israel (the nation-the Jewish people, and the country itself) is in our soul. The meaning these words is that the way to get to the redemption and the way to live with the hardships is to have the love of Israel in your soul.
Creative connection
I chose to draw the western wall because it is a place that brings the whole nation together and because I feel that it is an important place as we pray in that direction every day.
The western wall is a place all Jews go to despite all their differences. It is a place were you can see religious and nonreligious Jews all dancing together.
Reflection
When I started this project I didn't have high expectations as I felt that it was just another project that wouldn't affect me in any way. Through out the project I gradually realized how wrong I was and how this project turned out to be extremely important. This importance is not only due to the improvement in my writing skills, but also to the fact that I learned about interesting people, about my country, and even about myself.
My writing skills were improved by experience, and I got that experience by writing, rewriting and correcting all the different parts of the project. In addition to this I improved my research skills and widened my vocabulary by doing the research and by coming upon words I never heard of before.
While writing this project I learned many new things. I learned about Judith Djamal who is an interesting person you can learn a lot from. Apart from this I also learned through the literary and creative connection about my country and my relationship with Israel. By working on the background research I learned about an exotic and new country I've never heard of before, and probably wouldn't have learned about without this project. I am pleased to have discovered something new, and am glad this project helped me expand my knowledge about the world. I hope to continue learning about different things and new places.
Bibliography
Djamal, Judith, one of the founders of Mavoi Satum. Private interview. Jerusalem, 25th of March 2010 "Gibraltar",The Encyclopedia Judaica ,volume 7, pp. 386-387. Gibraltar Europe", The World Factbook, 20th of March, 2010, 28th of April, 2010.<https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gi.htm>
Table of Contents
Rationale
I chose to write my project about Judith Djamal because she is exactly what the project demands. She is an immigrant who contributes a great amount of herself to society. Judith is a movie editor, a mother of six children, and in all a great person. She got involved with the topic of women who are agunot by editing a movie on the subject.Judith is a human being just like us all, she sees hears and is aware to the hardships of people around her like all people but she doesn’t turn her back and try to forget about it, she tries to do something about it. She does what we should all do: she keeps her eyes open and is ready to help if someone is in need. Today she volunteers in an organization called “Mavoi Satom” an organization she set up because she felt the need to do something to help the problematic situation many woman in Israel encounter. These women would like a divorce but their husbands won't give them a “Get”- a document that allows them to marry or be with another man with out having a problem in Jewish law caused by a married woman having a forbidden relationship. This situation is called “Mesorvot Get” and the women are called “Agunot”. In many cases these women are blackmailed for money or the custody of their children in order to receive a get. In my opinion our responsibility as Israelis is to keep our eyes open and our heart ready to help anyone in need because at the end of the day we are all brothers and to create a better society we have to all look out for each other.
Profile
Judith Djamal was born in 1963 in Gibraltar a very small peninsular occupying two
and a half square miles. Gibraltar is approximately the size of a large neighborhood. In the time while Judith was growing up the border to Spain was closed which led to a situation where children in Gibraltar had very little to do and except for the summer during which they could be at the beach they got quite bored. This lifestyle is the reason Judith decided at age eight that she wanted to leave Gibraltar. In Gibraltar there was only one junior high school and it was led by nuns. Attending this school was quite memorable and one of the many stories Judith has from there is a story of her and a friend hiding in a closet from one of the nun teachers. When discovered, Judith just ran and jumped out the window rather then face the teacher. Judith found a way to both get out of Gibraltar and away from the convent and she moved to a Jewish boarding school in England. Judith enjoyed boarding school greatly and has many stories from there as well. The girls always raided each others rooms, put sugar in each others bed, took each others knickers (underpants) and basically had a very good time. Judith was always aware of others suffering even while in boarding school and if she thought something was wrong she did something about it. An example of this is the fact that she let out all the frogs from the science lab because she thought that science wasn’t a good enough excuse for causing such suffering.
Judith got married with Jack Djamal in 1989 in Gibraltar and then moved to Thailand -Jacks place of birth. Judith met Jack though Leila one of her best friends who is Jacks’ sister. She says that she was the last of Leilas friends that he met and he had no other choice but to marry her. Judith and Jack met in England while Judith was working in the BBC and Jack was visiting his sister. They came to Israel in 1992 and eventually made aliya in 1995. Judith’s reason for making aliya is that in Israel they had kosher food and she could eat 9% cottage cheese and milky. Besides that reason Judith felt that whatever she did anywhere except for Israel wouldn’t make a difference and even if it did it wouldn’t make a difference to what she felt matters because it wouldn’t affect Jewish society. Judith had wanted to make aliya since she was a child and this intention only increased with time. She spent a summer in Israel when she was sixteen and always felt that it is her country.
Judith got involved with the topic of women who are refused a get-Jewish divorce whilst editing a movie on the subject.
According to Jewish Law, a man has to give his wife a “get”, a religious divorce, of his own free will. She cannot start a new life or enter a new relationship until she has received the get. If she does have a relationship any children born of that union will be considered “mamzerim”, according to halacha- Jewish law, and cannot marry another Jew for 10 generations.
On the other hand, a non divorced man can be in another relationship and there are no halachic repercussions in Jewish Law. Unfortunately, this leads to an imbalance of power which certain men will exploit to their advantage. Many of the women who are refused a “get” have been abused and the get is seen as the last form of control by the recalcitrant husband. These men will often misuse the Jewish law and want to be paid handsomely to give the get freely. Throughout the ages, the leading Jewish authorities- Gedolei Hador, like the Rambam and the Rama have devised solutions to free women from the shackles of unwanted and abusive marriages. These women are known as Agunot. Freeing an aguna, a woman who cannot receive a get, was considered as important as freeing hostages or POWs.
Today many religious judges -dayanim are worried about the issue of mamzerut and place a lot of importance on the get being given willingly. So much so, that in their eyes, a man who refuses to give his wife a get but will give it if he is paid $10,000 is giving it out of his own free will. Rabbi Riskin spoke out against this phenomenon at a demonstration in Jerusalem. He emphatically stated that agunut is a problem that does not need to exist. There are solutions in Jewish Law that are just not being used.
Hearing first hand of the shocking situation in which these women find themselves and understanding how wrong it is led Judith to become involved. Judith’s first began raising money for good lawyers to represent the women in court. Although Judith isn’t a social worker these women used to call her at home because they needed someone to turn to. This is because a large number of these women are or were abused as well. Over time, Judith understood that these women needed a large range of professional help and she helped to found an organization called Mavoi Satum.
Mavoi Satum does many things to promote change. They work with many rabbis all over Israel, with the Knesset, with legal strategists and public leaders. Apart from working towards fixing the core of the problem they also help individuals by providing them with professional lawyers to present their case in court. Mavoi Satum also has social workers who are there to hear and help the women.
Judith believes that people need to be honest righteous and think about others for those are the things needed for a moral society. She hopes that in the future she will still be involved and would also like to be involved in doing something about child abuse.
Background research
Gibraltar is an overseas British colony south of Spain occupying 6.5 square kilometers. Gibraltar is strategically located in south Western Europe, bordering the strait of Gibraltar which links the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean on the southern coast of Spain.
Originally Gibraltar was part of Spain but it was conquered by Great Britain in 1713. in 1830 it was formally declared a colony.
In a referendum held in 1967 Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to remain a British dependency. The following granting of autonomy in 1969 by the United Kingdom led to Spain closing the border and cutting of all communication links. A series of negotiations were held as a result to this between the UK and Spain between the years 1997 and 2002 about establishing joint rule over Gibraltar.
After the majority of the Gibraltarian citizens voted against joint rule in the referendum held on the subject, the negotiations continued and eventually lead to an agreement between Spain and Great Britain. This agreement was that Spain would remove restrictions on air movements, speed up customs procedures, implement international telephone dialing, allow mobile roaming agreements and open the border to Spain. All this in exchange for Britain agreeing to increase the pensions of Spaniards who were employed in Gibraltar before the border was closed, allow Spain to open a cultural institute and to stay responsible for defense, foreign relations, internal security and financial stability.
The official language in Gibraltar is English. Apart from that Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are spoken as well.
Gibraltar has a population of approximately 28,800 citizens. Out of this population 88.3% are Christian, 4% are Muslim and 2% are Jews.
Despite being a small percentage of the total population of Gibraltar, the Jewish community is of significant importance as several Jews have served and still serve in leading roles in the government. A particular case to this is Sir Joshua Hassan who served as chief minister of Gibraltar for two different periods throughout his life.
Literary connection
אהבת שיראל בנשמהאלפיים שנה אני נודד
מחפש את הארץ אותה אני אוהב
כל יום מחדש הלב נשבר
כל יום מחדש אולי מחר
מתי הגאולה?
אני מאמין באמונה שלמה
בביאת המשיח
בארץ ישראל של אהבה
בכל יום שיגיע
הנה הנה זה בא
אהבת ישראל בנשמה
כל בוקר ציון אליך אני מתפלל
לא ינום לא יישן שומר ישראל
כל יום מחדש אני אוהב
כל יום מחדש עם כל הלב
שלום על ישראל
אני מאמין באמונה שלמה
בביאת המשיח
בארץ ישראל של אהבה
בכל יום שיגיע
הנה הנה זה בא
אהבת ישראל בנשמה
For the love of Israel
For two thousand years I have wandered
Searching for the land I love
Every day anew my heart breakes
Every day anew maybe tomorrow
When will the redemption come?
I have full faith
In the coming of the Messiah
In the land of Israel full of love,
Each day I believe he will come.
Here it comes:
The love of Israel is in our soul
Every morning I pray to Zion,
The guardian of Israel will not slumber nor sleep.
Every day my love is renewed
Every day anew with my whole heart
Peace in Israel
I have full faith
In the coming of the Messiah
In the land of Israel full of love,
Each day I believe he will come.
Here it comes:
The love of Israel is in your soul
The love of Israel is in your soul
The song "Ahavat Israel Baneshama" is written by David Avramzon. This song speaks of the yearning of the Jewish people for their home- the land of Israel. In this song David Avramzon managed to express the feeling of the heartbreaking hope for the redemption and the belief in the redemption and thecoming of the messiah despite all the hardships
I feel that the author's main point is that despite the hardships the Jewish people will never stop hoping for the redemption, and the messiah. They will never stop loving each and every member of the nation on each and every day.
I chose this piece of literature to include in my project because I felt that it really manages to express what it feels like to be a Jew. This song shows the love and brotherhood there is between Jews. It manages to express the feeling of longing and the hardships on the way to the redemption.
The best element in this piece of literature in my opinion is that despite all the hardships it closes optimistically: "Ahavat Israel Baneshama" which means that the love of Israel (the nation-the Jewish people, and the country itself) is in our soul. The meaning these words is that the way to get to the redemption and the way to live with the hardships is to have the love of Israel in your soul.
Creative connection
I chose to draw the western wall because it is a place that brings the whole nation together and because I feel that it is an important place as we pray in that direction every day.
The western wall is a place all Jews go to despite all their differences. It is a place were you can see religious and nonreligious Jews all dancing together.
Reflection
When I started this project I didn't have high expectations as I felt that it was just another project that wouldn't affect me in any way. Through out the project I gradually realized how wrong I was and how this project turned out to be extremely important. This importance is not only due to the improvement in my writing skills, but also to the fact that I learned about interesting people, about my country, and even about myself.
My writing skills were improved by experience, and I got that experience by writing, rewriting and correcting all the different parts of the project. In addition to this I improved my research skills and widened my vocabulary by doing the research and by coming upon words I never heard of before.
While writing this project I learned many new things. I learned about Judith Djamal who is an interesting person you can learn a lot from. Apart from this I also learned through the literary and creative connection about my country and my relationship with Israel. By working on the background research I learned about an exotic and new country I've never heard of before, and probably wouldn't have learned about without this project. I am pleased to have discovered something new, and am glad this project helped me expand my knowledge about the world. I hope to continue learning about different things and new places.
Bibliography
Djamal, Judith, one of the founders of Mavoi Satum. Private interview. Jerusalem, 25th of March 2010"Gibraltar",The Encyclopedia Judaica ,volume 7, pp. 386-387.
Gibraltar Europe", The World Factbook, 20th of March, 2010, 28th of April, 2010. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gi.htm>
אברמזון, דוד, "אהבת ישראל בנשמה". שירונט, ט"ו באייר תש"ע, ה' בסיוון תש"ע
.<http://www.shiron.net/artist?type=lyrics〈=1&prfid=2286&wrkid=5084 >